Bloom Assails Daley On Plans To Remodel City Hall Offices

February 07, 1991|By John Kass and Robert Davis.

Mayor Richard Daley`s plan to spend $260,000 on office remodeling for city lawyers, including the creation of a 40-seat conference room, sparked a political flap Wednesday, with Ald. Lawrence Bloom (5th) accusing the mayor of caring more about city bureaucrats than the poor.

As Bloom launched into a critique of the mayor on the floor of the Chicago City Council, Daley`s team of spokesmen and advisers hastily put together several different reasons why the remodeling was needed.

They settled on one, that the refurbishment would ease overcrowding in the corporation council`s office.

``Daley obviously cares more about offices for lawyers at a time when people don`t have homes, when he`s cutting health care,`` Bloom said. ``It`s a travesty to provide for conference rooms when there are human needs to be met.``

On Tuesday, the administration asked the council`s Budget Committee to approve the renovations, saying it needed a third conference room on the 6th floor of City Hall.

``Now they`re saying they need to remodel because of overcrowding,``

Bloom chided. ``Yesterday (Tuesday) it was because they needed a conference room. Either they were lying yesterday, or they`re lying today.``

The city already has two conference rooms for its lawyers on the 6th Floor, plus another in the building at 180 N. LaSalle St., where many administration lawyers work.

Daley`s team reacted quickly to Bloom`s criticism, making sure to have Corporation Counsel Kelly Welsh stand with the mayor at an impromptu news conference afterwards.

When asked to respond to Bloom`s criticism, Daley said, ``No. I don`t think so.`` But a moment later he did, saying the law offices were seriously overcrowded.

``Where am I going to put these people?,`` Daley asked. ``We`re moving divisions in the office. And it`s all going to be used furniture.``

Welsh said that several divisions in his department, including housing and appeals, were being moved into the 180 N. LaSalle building because of the overcrowding. The renovation plan also calls for repartitioning of lawyers`

offices at City Hall and at 180 N. LaSalle St.

``We have lawyers sharing desk space. They`ve had to conduct depositions in office cubicles,`` Welsh said. ``This is necessary. The office isn`t wasting money. We`ve hired more people to go after housing code violators. We just need the space.``

There are 250 lawyers in the corporation counsel`s office, Welsh said, up from 220 in 1989. ``I don`t see this as a big deal,`` he said. ``We`re not talking about building the Taj Mahal.``

Welsh also said that Bloom`s charges were politically motivated. Bloom is seeking re-election.

In other council business Wednesday, Daley moved forward on the development of a downtown circulator, a planned electric trolley system linking the North Western and Union rail stations with North Michigan Avenue, Navy Pier and McCormick Place.

Daley said he hopes to one day abolish all buses in the Loop to speed up traffic there.

Daley won approval to establish a special taxing district on commercial property within the service area, bounded roughly by the Stevenson Expressway on the south, Oak Street on the north, Desplaines Street on the west and the lake on the east.

The city also plans to raise $300 million in bond sales to help pay for the project. Other funding would be needed from the state and federal governments.

The council also unanimously approved a strict new mandatory landscaping ordinance sought by the mayor. It is designed to keep Chicago from becoming a ``concrete jungle`` by requiring developers of any new buildings of three stories or more or any new parking lots to plant at least one tree for each 25 feet of frontage property.